Leica have unveiled their show activities for Photokina 2014. In addition to the unique exhibition concept in the Leica Galerie, the programme features further cultural highlights. For example, the world premiere of the new book The Haight: Love, Rock and Revolution from legendary photographer Jim Marshall (1936-2010). Talks and signing sessions with prominent photographers are also planned.

Leica Press Release

Leica Camera AG presents show activities for photokina 2014

Solms, Germany, 14th August 2014. At this year’s photokina in Cologne (16 to 21 September 2014), Leica Camera AG will be making an appearance in Hall 1 with a widely varied programme of events. In addition to the unique exhibition concept in the Leica Galerie, the programme features further cultural highlights. For example, the world premiere of the new book The Haight: Love, Rock and Revolution from legendary photographer Jim Marshall (1936-2010). Talks and signing sessions with prominent photographers are also planned.

The Leica Galerie in Hall 1 will be officially opened on 16 September at 9.30 a.m., with representatives of the media in attendance. The focus of this year’s exhibition concept is on impressive photography from the world of music. It embraces all facets of music photography, from concert images and extremely personal artist portraits to reportage photography with exciting glimpses behind the scenes at concerts. In addition, the exhibition will also showcase the work of musicians who have embraced photography as a second passion. This year’s exhibition programme is rounded off by award-winning portfolios from Leica cultural projects.

Also planned for 3 p.m. on the first day of the show is an opportunity to meet the artist. Here, Michael Koetzle chats with Thomas Hoepker, this year’s winner of the Leica Hall of Fame Award. Their conversation will be followed by a signing session. Hoepker, active as a photographer around the globe, is represented in the Leica Galerie with a retrospective of his work entitled ‘Wanderlust’, a tribute to his exceptional oeuvre from the past 60 years. The book of the same name will appear in the catalogue of the publishers teNeues Verlag.

On Wednesday 17 September at 11 a.m., Lois Hechenblaikner will be presenting his talk on ‘Paradises and Apocalypses’. In his work, the Austrian photographer is interested in Alpine tourism and regional popular music. His images often polarise opinions and reveal the darker sides of mass tourism, winter sports and party culture and their effects on the traditions of the mountains and the local people.

A highlight of the afternoon programme takes place at 3 p.m. – the exclusive world premiere of The Haight: Love, Rock and Revolution. Amelia Davis presents a new book about the Grammy Trustee award-winning music photographer Jim Marshall (1936–2010) to representatives of the media.

Marshall is represented with three exhibitions in the Leica Galerie, including a collection of photographs captured in the legendary Haight-Ashbury neighbourhood in San Francisco from 1965-1968, during the rise of today’s modern counterculture movement. Jim Marshall left a legacy of powerful portraits of the big stars of the music scene of his times, like Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Donovan and the Beatles, as well as icons of the age like concert promoter Bill Graham, Beat Generation poets Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, the guru of psychedelia.

Visitors on Thursday, 18 September, can look forward to two signing sessions. Till Brönner, the internationally acclaimed trumpeter, singer and composer, will be at the Leica stand at 11 a.m.

Numerous exhibitions of his works in the past years have provided ample recognition of his talents as a photographer. He is represented in the Leica Galerie by photographs of fellow musicians and friends and he will be presenting his latest book, entitled Faces of Talent.

Jürgen Schadeberg, the South African photographer with German roots, will be coming to the Leica stand at 2 p.m. For decades now, he has been capturing everyday life and radical change in the Republic of South Africa and the lives of farm workers and township dwellers in photos. In the Leica Galerie, he presents his own and very personal view of South Africa.
Friday, 19 September, brings further highlights, the first of which is a signing session with Georges Yammine, the violinist and photographer from Qatar at 11 a.m. He plays in Daniel Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and captured musical snapshots and everyday scenes at rehearsals with the orchestra.

At 5 p.m. Thomas Wiegold will be talking about ‘Episodes from the life of Anja Niedringhaus’. The journalist is a specialist for international defence and security politics and has reported from many conflict zones with German military presence. In his talk, he will be revisiting events in the life of the multiple award-winning photographer Anja Niedringhaus, with whom he was personally acquainted.

Anja Niedringhaus photographed numerous war and conflict zones around the globe before falling victim to an assassination attack in Afghanistan in April 2014. This is a further reason for Leica Camera AG to acknowledge her photographic legacy.

This will be followed at 1 p.m. on Saturday, 20 September with a talk and a subsequent signing session by Gerd Ludwig, winner of the Dr. Erich Salomon Award 2014, presented by the Deutschen Gesellschaft für Photographie e.V. (the German Photographic Society). The German-American photojournalist has made numerous journeys to the forbidden zone around the Chernobyl nuclear power station and brought back impressive photographic records of the region, the lives of the people who live there and the victims of the catastrophic nuclear accident. His collection, ‘The long shadow of Chernobyl’, already attracted critical acclaim around the world.

At 2 p.m. on Sunday, 21 September, York Hovest’s talk entitled ‘One hundred days in Tibet’ (National Geographic) rounds off the Leica event programme at the photokina 2014. Inspired by a personal meeting with the Dalai Lama and his moving words about the fate of his country, the fashion photographer promised to capture Tibet in pictures and sounds. He set out on his 100-day journey in 2012. His impressive images capture not only the breathtaking landscapes of Tibet, but also poignant portraits of Tibetan nomads and monks.

In addition, German photographic artist Hans Georg Esch will be presenting a unique panorama of the skyline of Shanghai from 16 to 21 September 2014 at Roncalliplatz in Cologne. The 360-degree photo, taken with a Leica S, will be on display in a mobile rotunda with an internal platform open to the public.

From there, visitors can look forward to an exciting and fascinating visual experience: they can literally immerse themselves in the panorama and – thanks to the exceptional resolution – discover even the tiniest details of the impressive and vibrant megacity Shanghai. Co-partners of the project are Leica Camera AG, Wetzlar, and the Leica Galerie Salzburg.

Leica Camera AG is an internationally operating, premium-segment manufacturer of cameras and sport optics products. The legendary status of the Leica brand is founded on a long tradition of excellence in the construction of lenses. Combined with innovative technologies, Leica products continue to guarantee better pictures in all situations in the worlds of visualisation and perception to this day.

Leica Camera AG has its headquarters in Wetzlar, in the state of Hesse in Germany, and a second production site in Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal. The company operates branch offices in England, France, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, South Korea, Italy, Australia and the USA. New and innovative products have been the driving force behind the company’s positive development in recent years.